August 4, 2005
Al-Qaeda May Be Most Media Savvy Terror Group Ever
The new Al-Qaeda videotape shown today on Al-Jazeera television proves that although the group's central command has been severely weakened since the 9/11 attacks, it's managed to remain the most media-savvy terrorist group in history (which, as far as accomplishments go, ranks right up there with "most photogenic Nazi"). Al-Qaeda knows that Tony Blair has been getting hammered by a left-wing British press that blames his Iraq policies for the 7/7 and 7/21 London bombings. So naturally, the new videotape shows Al-Qaeda' s deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, telling Brits that, "Blair has brought to you destruction in central London." Addressing both Britain and the U.S., he added: "Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers."
So let's get this straight: all the U.S. and Britain need to do is leave Iraq, and everything will be back to normal? Yes, normal, just like back on 9/11: which happened a year-and-half before the Coalition invaded Iraq. Or maybe like in 1998, when Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Or maybe 1993, when Islamic terrorists made their first attempt at destroying the World Trade Center. Let's get real: the deadly wave of Islamic terrorism that has plagued the West over the past decade-plus has nothing to do with foreign policy and everything to with the concept of jihad, which requires all able-bodied Muslims to spread Islam to every corner of the globe, by violence if necesarry. Even if the U.S. and Britain weren't in Iraq right now, both countries would still be targets of Muslim fanatics, just as the West has always been since Islam's inception. It's certainly not politically correct these days to say it, but Islam has been an aggressively expansionist faith every since its birth in the Arabian desert in the 7th century. For instance, Spain, Sicily, North Africa and the Balkans didn't fall under Islamic rule during various stages of their histories by accident.
Hopefully, most Brits won't buy what Al-Zawahiri is selling: but I fear that elements on the British Left--in particular the BBC and its media bretheren--will point to the new Al-Qaeda tape as proof that Tony Blair's policies in Iraq are what got Britain into the mess it currently finds itself in with Islamofacists. This is, of course, ludicrous: if they really want to blame Blair's policies as the root cause of the London bombings, they should target his policy of turning a blind eye as Islamic radicals spewed hatred in mosques and on street corners throughout Great Britain for years...but that's another story for another day.
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